Fermi Level

The Fermi level is a hypothetical level of potential energy for an electron inside a crystalline solid. Occupying such a level would give an electron (in the fields of all its neighboring nuclei) a potential energy equal to its chemical potential (average diffusion energy per electron) as they both appear in the Fermi-Dirac distribution function,

which calculates the probability that an electron with energy occupies a particular single-particle state (density of states) within such a solid. T is the absolute temperature and k is Boltzmann's constant. When the exponential equals 1, and the value of describes the Fermi level as a state with 50% chance of being occupied by an electron for the given temperature of the solid.

Read more about Fermi Level:  Other Terminology Problems, Some Other Complications, Summary

Famous quotes containing the word level:

    Insurrection:... insurrection as soon as circumstances allow: insurrection, strenuous, ubiquitous: the insurrection of the masses: the holy war of the oppressed: the republic to make republicans: the people in action to initiate progress. Let the insurrection announce with its awful voice the decrees of God: let it clear and level the ground on which its own immortal structure shall be raised. Let it, like the Nile, flood all the country that it is destined to make fertile.
    Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–1872)